At the present time, POS (point of sales) apparatuses are installed in most stores independently of whether stores are retail stores or large-scaled stores. The POS apparatus comprises a display for indicating the amount of money, a bar code reader, a mechanism through which printing is carried out on a receipt and a journal, a keyboard for input and the like. Further, the POS apparatus is constructed so as to be connected to a host computer. In this POS apparatus, when a customer brings commodities, which the customer wishes to buy, to a check-cut counter, a store person operates the POS apparatus to read bar codes printed on tags attached to the commodities with a bar code reader. As a result, prices of all the commodities sold to the customer are totaled, and the sum total is indicated on the display, and, in addition, the names of purchased commodities and the prices of the respective commodities are printed on and output to a receipt and a journal. When a plurality of commodities of an identical type have been purchased, the amount of money obtained by multiplying the price by the number of commodities of the identical type is printed on the receipt and the journal. When a plurality of different types of commodities are purchased, for the commodities, the name and the price are printed on the receipt and the journal in the order of reading of bar codes. Further, when a host computer is connected to the POS apparatus, registration of commodities, unit prices and the like can be carried out from the host computer side. Furthermore, for each commodity, the totalization of amounts of sales and the totalization of amounts of cost prices for each month can be carried out. This can realize merchandise control in the store.
In recent years, the utilization of a receipt M in accounting, which is originally intended, as well as in service to customers has been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 74362/1994 proposes a method wherein advertisement information on bargain sale, information on discount useful for bargain sale and the like are printed in the form of a bar code as a coupon on a receipt to eliminate the need to separately issue the coupon. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 306442/1999 proposes a method wherein a facial image (a photograph-like image, an illustration or the like) of an operator in the store and an introduction sentence of the operator, together with the contents of transactions, are printed on the receipt to give a good impression to the customer and, further, to allow the customer to have a sense of closeness to the store. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 315283/2000 proposes a method wherein, in settling accounts at a check-out counter, based on a request from the customer, a description of cooking most related to purchased commodities is determined while taking the time necessary for settling the accounts into consideration and is printed on the receipt. This can eliminate the need to investigate or copy a recipe for cooking using the purchased commodities and thus can efficiently purchase materials for cooking and can efficiently perform cooking.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 266198/1992 proposes an apparatus which, in response to a series of input operations, a plurality of message data, which have been properly preset in accordance with one commodity, are successively output from a display part. Specifically, a plurality of message data are preset in accordance with classification which has been done according to a series of input operations from the start of the registration of one transaction to the close of the registration of the one transaction, such as the operation of PLU key or section key for registering sales data for each classification, the operation of a bar code reader, the operation for instructions on subtotaling processing, and the operation for instructions on close processing, are related to the series of input operations, and are stored in message data storage means. The message data read from the message data storage means is sent to output means. Further, the plurality of message data stored in the message data storage means in accordance with the classification of input sales data are output from output control means in response to a series of input operations.
For example, the plurality of message data, which have been properly preset in accordance with commodities, are stored in the message data storage means in relation to a series of input operations, for example, “immediately after the registration of a commodity,” “at the time of the operation of a subtotal key,” and “at the time of the operation of a close key.” When the registration of one transaction is started and the operation of the registration of commodities is carried out, the output control means reads message data corresponding to the “immediately after the operation of registration” among the plurality of message data for the commodities and sends the message data to the output means. Upon the depression of the “subtotal key” for instructions on subtotaling processing, when there is a commodity for which the message data is stored, the message data is output. Therefore, when the registration of one transaction is ended and the “close key” is operated, if there is a commodity, among the registered commodities, for which the message data is stored in relation to the “at the time of close key operation,” the message data is output. This permits a plurality of message data properly preset according to the classification to be successively output in response to a series of input operations. As a result, various message data of proper contents related to the classification can be provided at proper timing. This can contribute to an improvement in services to customers, sales promotion and the like.
According to all the above-described conventional POS apparatuses, however, contents, such as issue of coupons, introduction of staffs, and recipe of cooking, which are not related directly to purchased commodities, are printed on a receipt at the time of settling of the accounts. That is, the receipt is used for other applications or other purposes, and data on commodities related directly to the commodity sold to the customer are not prepared. Therefore, for example, commercial activity and advertisement activity utilizing relation of commodities to each other or one another cannot be performed. This will be more specifically described.
(1) Since advertisement activity to customers is carried out indiscriminately, close advertisement according to customers cannot be carried out.
(2) Since advertisement activity to customers is carried out indiscriminately, advertising costs are increased.
(3) Since advertisement is carried out without the investigation of relation to commodities sold to customers, useless ordering is carried out.